by K. D. Mattis
Harris managed to avoid half of the beams, but couldn’t avoid all. Four bright lights cut through the hull of the Explorer.
At the front of the ship, the escaped oxygen exploded. The force of the blast pushed the Explorer back toward the other alien ship.
“Admiral, the Russians need to speak to you right away!” Card was impatient.
Asher surveyed the bridge. Seeing everyone shaken, but alive, she turned to Card.
“Fine, put them on the screen.”
A rugged man with an unshaved face and graying hair stared at Asher through the monitor. “Asher, my name is Viktor. I was wondering if we might assist you.”
“Assist? How?”
“I am the commander of the Russian vessel, Stalingrad. We saw you in battle. We would like to help.”
Startled, Asher jumped up in her seat, but her harness held her down. “I’m sorry, did you just say you have a ship?”
The man on the monitor laughed. “You told the world to prepare for an alien attack, so we did.”
On the second monitor, the diagnostics team showed an image of the Russian vessel as it traveled to the battlefield.
“Your ship, it’s so small.”
“Don’t let its size fool you, Admiral. The Stalingrad has a few tricks up her sleeve.”
While the Russian craft neared the battlefield, a seal began to open down its center. The craft itself was unremarkable, but as it opened, it revealed four smaller vessels. Each shot off toward the largest alien ship.
The aliens responded by opening fire on the small fighters. They wasted each shot. While small, the fighters had no problem running out of harm’s way. Soon, they flew too close to the hull of the ship for the aliens to attack. The fighters couldn’t do much damage, but the aliens couldn’t stop them either.
With her crew watching her every move, Asher whipped out a tablet computer and started drawing on the surface. The Russian help wasn’t much, but it helped. Asher did her best to make a plan.
When Asher looked up again, she did so with confidence.
“Tactical, stop firing unless you have to. I need to know exactly what ammunition we have left.”
The tactical team went to work. Neither of the men knew what to expect, but didn’t question their orders.
“Comm,” Asher said, “tell Guardian and Protector to meet us over here as quickly as possible. We need to regroup.”
“Yes, sir. What if the third alien ship follows them?”
“We’ll worry about that when the time comes. Right now, we need to regroup. Tell engineering that I want our thrusters fixed immediately. We don’t have any time to waste.”
Lieutenant Card talked back and forth with different members of the crew. Turning to the admiral, she said, “Engineering needs orders about the hull breaches.”
“Nothing. We can patch them, but we can’t fix them in battle. Tell them to ignore the breaches for now.”
Holt called out to the admiral. “We have a final count on ammunition. We have four torpedoes, eighteen missiles, and seventy rounds of railgun ammo.”
“That’s it?”
“I’m afraid so.”
With all ships gathered together, Asher set her plan into motion.
Despite the alien attempts to stop them, the Russian ships kept the largest alien vessel occupied. The Explorer took aim at the weaker of the smaller ships and fired two torpedoes.
After the impact, the ship could still function. However, Guardian and Protector gave it everything they had.
The Explorer shot off toward the moon. The remaining alien ship did not suffer much damage earlier in the battle. Without pausing, it followed the Explorer.
“Keep going,” Asher told Harris. “Don’t stop until we’re on the other side of the moon.”
The pilot nodded, but said, “That’s not a problem, but why?”
“If we get to the other side of the moon, they can’t communicate with the other ships. The moon will block any signal they transmit.”
“Won’t we have the same problem?”
“No. We have satellites. If we need to contact the other ships, we can bounce the signal off of them.”
With more speed than the alien ship, the Explorer arrived at the far side of the moon with enough time to turn around. Though damaged, the Explorer prepared for another fight.
In the distance, the aliens showed themselves.
“Helm, charge the ship. I want them to think we’re going to hit them. Tactical, I want their engines destroyed. If they make it out of the battle, they won’t be going home.”
The Explorer charged. At first, the alien vessel didn’t respond outside of charging its weapons.
Swerving hard to get out of the way, the aliens gave Holt and Tran a perfect shot at their engines.
Using their last two torpedoes, the Explorer blew the engines off the alien ship. Moving to the front, twelve missiles took care of the weapons systems.
The alien ship was dead in the water.
Using every scanning method available to them, the diagnostics team worked to confirm that the alien ship couldn’t do anything. With a simple thumb’s up, the bridge of the Explorer erupted in cheers.
Asher didn’t cheer.
“Sir, we did it,” Holt said. “We’ve proven we can take them one-on-one.”
Asher shook her head. “That’s great, but this battle isn’t one-on-one. We’ve stopped one alien ship. But the fight isn’t over, and we’re almost out of ammo.”
Asher watched the ship. Out of nowhere, a crack formed that circled its outer edge. The crack didn’t stop. After making it around the vessel once, the crack continued around several more times.
“That can’t be,” Asher said. The first alien ship we fought did the same thing. I thought that only happened because of the nuke.”
When the crack stopped, Asher’s eyes shot open wide.
“Harris, get us out of here!”
In silence, the alien vessel collapsed in on itself before exploding in an impressive display of light and shrapnel.
Lieutenant Card shook her head in disbelief. “They used self-destruct? They would rather destroy themselves than be captured?”
As the debris from the blast struck the Explorer, Asher lost her breath. Three more blasts from the wreckage obliterated the alien ship. Asher felt each blast deep in her heart.
After waiting several seconds for orders, Harris turned to the admiral. Her eyes fixated on the monitors, she couldn’t say a word. Harris released his harness and floated over to her.
“Kayla, are you with us?”
“I just don’t get it, Robert.”
“None of us do. Right now, it doesn’t matter. You have a crew, and they need orders. Orders that only you can give.”
“I know, but how can we fight these things? No human would ever act like that. They attack for no reason and, if they lose a fight, they blow up their own ships.”
Harris shook his head. “It doesn’t matter right now. Asher, you care because you’re human. You want to believe that they’re going to make sense. They’re not human. You can’t understand the way they think, and you never will. All that matters is that we defend our home. The fight’s not over. We need you.”
Asher looked between the floor and Harris. She saw his eyes shine, pleading with her. The Explorer needed her.
“Harris, get us back in the fight.”
33
“The Guardian has been destroyed.”
Asher surveyed the battlefield. Flashes of light filled the monitors in a mix of alien attacks and explosions. She tried, but couldn’t see the Guardian.
“You’re sure about that?” Asher asked.
“Yes, sir. Commander Gibbs confirmed. The Guardian took several critical hits. They lost all power and life support. The Russians did what they could to save any survivors, but we don’t know how many made it out before the Guardian finally blew.”
Looking at her communications officer, Asher found herself wanting to
say something to make everything okay. No words came out. She could only shake her head in disbelief.
Asher saw the look of pain in each of the bridge crew’s eyes. Some showed anger, some fear, some sadness, but all showed pain.
“Look,” Asher said, “there’s no time to be upset. Right now, we don’t even know what we’re upset about. It’s possible that the Russians saved the entire crew. We don’t know. What we know is that if we don’t get out there and help, we’ll have lost a lot more than the Guardian.”
Snapping back to their consoles, the crew of the Explorer regained focus. Under Asher’s orders, they charged toward the nearest ship.
“Holt, Tran, put all our remaining missiles in their engines. As we come around to their bow, destroy what’s left of their weapons.”
Tran worked his fingers all over his console. “Sir, if we finish off our missiles on the engines, all we’ll have left are the rail guns.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, sir. They can get the job done, but we need to get close for an assault to be effective.”
The Explorer took several shots from the largest alien ship on their starboard side.
Harris locked in on the smaller of the two ships and shot forward.
“How close do we need to be?” Gonzales shouted.
“Less than a hundred meters, if possible,” Tran said.
Asher’s jaw dropped. “You need to be that close?”
“I’m afraid so. The rail gun is accurate, but if we’re going to hit them more than once, we need to close the gap. It will lower the amount of adjustments needed for follow-up shots and keep them from maneuvering.”
“Fine. Harris, scrape the paint off their ship.”
The Explorer let off all of its remaining missiles into the ship’s engines. With a disappointing blast, the vessel kept moving.
Harris and Gonzales worked together to keep the Explorer close to the alien ship. The ship kept moving, but Harris stayed right on top of it. Passing the bow, Harris forced the Explorer into a flip that made it scream in agony. Tactical delivered everything the Explorer could give to the front of the alien ship.
“They’ve fixed their weapons,” Asher whispered.
The railguns proved their effectiveness. Though they knocked out two of the alien weapons, the tactical team couldn’t do anything about the other four the aliens repaired. Four shots gutted the Explorer.
Asher heard screams throughout the ship, screams that fell silent as the oxygen escaped, stolen by the vacuum of space.
The computer worked quickly. Doors shut all around any room exposed to the harsh cold of space. That didn’t stop the terror.
Fire and destroyed machinery terrorized the crew at every turn. Instead of burning normally, the flames danced in a globe around everything they burned.
In the background, Asher heard a series of statuses shouted across the room.
“Sir, thrusters are gone!”
“Life support is down!”
“Section sixteen is completely shut off.”
Systems couldn’t survive. Thrusters failed, computers failed, and life support failed. Compartments throughout the ship opened and sounded an alarm, alerting all crew not in a suit to take a breathing device.
Parts of the ship could no longer maintain a safe temperature. The areas of the ship facing the side of the sun grew uncomfortably hot. Soon, they would be impossible to work in. On the side of the ship away from the sun, the cold took its toll. Components and machines frosted over as the water vapor in the air condensed on their surface.
The crew on the bridge never even flinched.
“Admiral, we have an encrypted message from the Ambassador,” said Lieutenant Card.
“Reynolds?”
The communications officer nodded.
“Put him on the screen.”
The man on the screen sweated profusely. Without his uniform jacket on, he didn’t look like much of an officer, but his voice, calm and steady, transformed him into the leader he was.
“Admiral, I need the aliens drawn closer to the station.”
“What? The station isn’t finished. It doesn’t even have a weapons system. Do you want to be a target?”
“Of course I don’t want to be a target, but I am looking for one.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you can keep them busy for five minutes, we’ll have the weapon grid charged.”
Asher’s eyes grew wide. “How? We were specifically told—”
“Worry about that later. Right now, you need to stay alive for just five minutes. Can you do that?”
Harris did his best to avoid it, but with the thrusters damaged, he couldn’t. Four more rounds hit the Explorer.
“Five minutes is a long time.”
“Five minutes will let you see home again.”
On the left side of the room, someone slammed their fist on their console. All eyes turned to Ensign Tran.
“I told you, I’m going home again. We’re down to forty-five rounds of railgun ammo. If these monsters are going to make a liar out of me, I’m going to get my pound of flesh.”
Terrified, Asher let out a laugh that shook the core of her crew. “These beasts are hard to fight because they don’t fight like human beings. Now, I won’t either. Harris, plot a course to ram into the smaller ship. Full speed.”
“Are you serious?”
“That’s an order! Ram their ship. Tran, fire at will.”
The Explorer moved too quickly for the larger vessel to keep up. As the Explorer drew close, the smaller ship opened fire.
Taking the hit, the bow of the Explorer flexed and moved under the intense heat of the enemy fire. Several more shots bit into the front of the Explorer, but the bow refused to give.
Firing, Tran and Holt went through half of the ammunition in a matter of moments. Every time a shot hit the hull, another would follow it. Finally, the alien vessel began leaking gas.
“Sir, we’ve broken through their hull,” the diagnostics team said.
“They’re not moving, sir! Are you sure you want to do this?”
Every ounce of humanity inside her told Asher to turn off.
“We cannot win if we fight like human beings.”
The alien ship finally moved when they were one hundred meters away. The ship was too large. To move out of the way fast enough, the alien ship tore itself apart. The hull breaches grew as the metal warped and cracked. Just as with the other ship, a crack formed around the center of the vessel and wrapped around several times before it blew up in a spectacular display of light.
Frozen in her seat, Ensign Gonzales stared at her console. “We’re still alive?”
Harris released his anxiety with a laugh. “You bet we are. I think we scared them.”
Asher focused on the floor and noticed a drop of sweat by her feet. Seconds later, a bead of sweat rolled down her head, dripped off her nose, and joined its brother.
“Gravity,” Asher said.
Several of the crew looked at their commanding officer with questions on their faces. None said anything.
“The Explorer was built close to the Earth,” Asher said. “We know how its gravity will affect us. I wonder if they know how it will affect them.”
The pilot didn’t need to ask what she meant. Pushing the Explorer for all it could muster, Harris drove the Explorer between Earth and the Ambassador.
The last and largest alien ship followed, but faced an onslaught of fire from Asher’s ship.
“That’s it,” Holt said. “We’re out of ammo. We don’t have anything left to fire at them.”
Asher looked around desperately. “Comm, what’s the status of the Protector?”
“It’s heavily damaged, but it’ll be fine. They’re out of ammunition as well, but the aliens are ignoring them.”
“And the Russians?”
“Two of the fighters are destroyed. The other two have rejoined the Stalingrad. The Stalingrad was damaged
trying to save the crew of the Guardian.”
“How much time has passed?”
“Three minutes, sir.”
Asher shook her head. Reaching down, she turned on the magnets in her boots. Unfastening the buckle, she removed her harness and stood up. Reaching her hands up, she straightened her hair before smoothing her jacket.
Pulling the mask off her face, she took in a deep breath of air as she removed the oxygen canister and let it fall to the ground. The air was stale with a hint of smoke. Standing there with all eyes on her, Asher realized she was freezing. Her body wanted to shiver, but she wouldn’t let it.
“If I’m going to die, it’s going to be on my feet.”
34
Asher looked at the left monitor. Earth, in all its pale blue light, shone at her, reminding her why they fought.
Looking at the monitor, Asher could have easily convinced herself that nothing was wrong. Earth still turned. Clouds still moved. Waves still crashed on countless beaches. Somewhere on the planet, a young couple fell in love. Elsewhere, a family said their last goodbyes to a family pet. Life went on.
The monitor on the right destroyed that vision.
The alien ship charged all functional weapons.
She knew the answer but asked anyway.
“How much time do we have?”
Card shook her head and whispered, “Two minutes.”
“Two minutes is a long time.”
“It’s less than five.”
Asher looked at her pilot. Without prompting, Harris returned her stare.
“Harris, what would a dog do?”
“Sir, I’m not sure I understand.”
“When cornered, a dog has four choices: Fight, flight, submission, or avoidance.”
“We can’t fight,” Tran said.
“We can’t run,” Gonzales said.
“There’s no way we’re surrendering,” Asher said with a grin.
Harris lowered his head and looked into his lap. He removed a necklace from around his neck, wrapped the chain around his knuckles, the pendant buried in his palm, and took the controls.